Ole Miss, which entered the game averaging 38 points and 490 yards of total offense per game (250 rushing, 240 passing), was held to 205 total yards by the Alabama defense, only 46 rushing and 159 through the air while keeping the Rebels off the scoreboard. Tide quarterback AJ McCarron completed 25 of 32 passes for 190 yards with one interception, connecting with wide receiver Christion Jones 5 times for 61 yards. Running back T.J. Yeldon rushed for 121 yards and a career-long 68-yard touchdown, eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the seventh time in his Alabama career while reserve back Kenyan Drake had 99 yards on 12 carries including a 50-yard scoring run. Linebacker C.J. Mosley led the Alabama defense, recording a safety in the fourth quarter as one of his 10 tackles. Safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix had a team-leading 14 tackles for the Tide.

Post Game Quotes

Head Coach Nick Saban
Opening statement:
“This is a big win for us in my opinion. I think our players did a great job of competing in the game. There were a lot of tough circumstances like stops in the red area and fourth down stops.

“Ole Miss has a really good team and a really good offensive team, so for us to shut them out was a great job by the defense. So many players out there played a lot of plays, and they all did a good job. [They had] critical fourth down stops and did well on third down.

“Offensively, I was really pleased with the way they hung in there. We didn’t run it very well in first half, but did a better job in the second half. We did a good job on third down and kept drives alive. Obviously, we’d be happy if we scored more points. We probably had too many occasions where we stopped ourselves, like a penalty, and that creates some missed opportunities for us.

“All in all, I was really pleased and proud of the way our players competed in this game. We knew this was going to be a dog fight, and we knew it was going to be a tough game. Our players did a really, really good job of being relentless out there with their effort, their toughness, the way they competed in the game.

“C.J. Mosley really did a great job of leading the defense. He was really fired up about playing in this game, and he did a great job. The [defensive] front did a great job. We were able to play a lot of split safety coverages out there, which helped us from giving up big plays and we were still able to stop the run, which is really critical in terms of how well the front played. We got some turnovers when we needed them.

“I was really excited and pleased with the job our team did, the way they hung in there in the game. You can be critical about kicking three field goals, can be critical about a lot of things, but if you’re critical it’s only because you have expectations for something that this team still needs to improve. I think everybody is committed to trying to do that. That’s what we’re going to be committed to.”

#2 DeAndrew White, wide receiver
On the offense in tonight’s game:
“It’s all about the win. We weren’t really focused on big plays – we were focused on executing our routes and protections. We just focused on the win.”

#8 Jeoffrey Pagan, Defensive line
On the intensity tonight:
“We looked at it as a challenge, as we were being hunted. With all the things that Ole Miss was saying, we took it personal and we wanted to come out and dominate the game and the line of scrimmage.”

On C.J. Mosley’s leadership:
“He played really well. He got the calls to us and he was really loud. There were really tough situations and he did a great job with communication.”

On the key to the game:
“It was just coming together as a team – playing team football. Alabama football.”

#43 Cade Foster, Kicker
On his game:
“I think I have shown improvement and I still have a lot to work on. Kickoffs weren’t where I wanted them to be tonight, but I was really happy with the way I kicked field goals and had a great long snapper in Cole Mazza – he had an issue with a snap on a punt in the first quarter, but after that he really grinded it out and his snaps where perfect all night.”

On his day-to-day routine:
“Day-to-day is different, it depends on what special teams Coach Saban has during practice, but on a typical day I would average up to 20 kicks. I try to keep the majority of them inside 45 yards, because that’s where the majority of the kicks come from. Kickoffs – I try and limit those because they are a lot more taxing on the body.”

Ole Miss Head Coach Hugh Freeze
Opening statement:
“Well, obviously it’s disappointing. We really felt good about our preparation. We felt like we had shot to get this thing deep into the game and be in it, and would have loved to have had that opportunity. But hats off to Coach (Nick) Saban and Alabama, they totally took it to us. We did not have answers to the stuff they were doing defensively. That’s very frustrating and I take that pretty personal. I’m proud of our kids’ effort, particularly defensively. I thought they fought, but they had to stay on the field way too much. We gave up some explosive plays that you can’t do when playing them (Alabama). But that’s a very good football team and they did a good job of switching things up on us. They had the right call every single time when it seemed like we had an answer. We never could get in tempo in the first half. It’s just disappointing, not what I anticipated happening tonight, obviously. But it did, so we have to go back and regroup. We have a difficult stretch of games and we can’t let this one get us next week. We have to go back and put it in the trash can tomorrow after we watch it and move on.”

On Alabama’s defensive performance:
“They beat us on some one-on-ones up front, on runs that we thought should have been good. When you’re not running the ball effectively against great teams, it makes for a long night. It makes it very difficult. They did a really nice job of mixing things up, keeping us off balance for sure, and disguising things. It seemed like every time we thought we had a beat on them, we missed something we thought should have been good and they had it played perfectly. It was a difficult night. They did a great job planning and it’s frustrating.”

On the interception on fourth down:
“Yeah, they triggered on us on the fourth and one. They triggered extremely hard, and then we come back and get in the red zone. I love Laquon Treadwell, he’s a great kid, a great player and a great kid to coach. Every day we worked on that play we worked it two ways, and if anyone dropped, just tuck the ball and run it. He should have run it. The corner kind of dropped and we would have probably gotten five yards and kept moving, but we didn’t. Obviously I didn’t do a good enough job of coaching him up on that one.”